


True Love

by rethrin



Category: Franklin & Bash
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, First Kiss, M/M, Trope Bingo Round 3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-11
Updated: 2014-07-11
Packaged: 2018-02-08 07:32:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1932150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rethrin/pseuds/rethrin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>"He won't let him out."</em>
  <br/>
  <em>"Won't let who out?"</em>
  <br/>
  <em>"Don't know.  All I know is that he turned up with this guy, they talked for a bit and then Peter locked him in the bathroom and went crazy."</em>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	True Love

>> You have to come home

Jared frowned, Peter wasn't the greatest composer of texts ever, but there was usually a bit more info than that. And Peter knew he was seeing Tillie tonight, knew that she'd asked Jared's advice on some change to the contract her boss at the water park wanted her to sign which was clearly an excuse to get him to her apartment so she could do wicked, unmentionable things to him. Peter knew he liked wicked unmentionable things. 

He looked at the message, then looked at the door to Tillie's apartment, imagined her waiting for him, wine, candles, very little clothing. He sighed and typed back quickly. 

>> Seriously?

He only had to wait thirty seconds for the reply.

>> Please get back here I don't know what to do

Jared turned away from the door and texted Tillie on his way back to the car. He'd usually make sure it was full of apologies and emoticons, shamelessly begging for a second chance, but he only had time for a quick 'sorry, can't make it'.

\- ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ -

Pindar opened the door to let him into the beach house just as Jared reached out for it. 

"You have to do something."

"Hi, nice to see you too, what's going on?"

"I don't know, I was in my room. If the police ask I didn't even see the man, so it's nothing to do with me."

"The police?" Jared hadn't seen any cop cars, couldn't hear anything unusual in the house. "Peter?" he called out. 

Carmen came down the stairs. 

"He won't let him out."

"Won't let who out?"

"Don't know. All I know is that he turned up with this guy, they talked for a bit and then Peter locked him in the bathroom and went crazy."

Jared frowned, his heart beating faster. Adrenaline pumping, he took the stairs two at a time. Peter was crouching in the hallway, leaning against the wall outside the bathroom.

"Hey, buddy, how you doing?" Jared asked, full of calm.

"Don't let him out." Peter scrambled to his feet and stood in front of the door. 

"Okay, it's okay. Want to tell me what's going on?"

"I don't know what to do."

"Well that's why I'm here. I'm going to help, right? You called me. So tell me what's happening."

Peter was shaking his head the whole time Jared was speaking. "Don't you talk to me like that, I'm not crazy, you can't be calm at me."

Jared tried to catch Peter's arm, touch always got through to him where words didn't, but Peter shrugged away from him, shaking his head again. 

"We can't let him out."

"Why?"

"He's a," Peter dropped his voice to a whisper, "wizard."

Jared stared at him, thinking desperately if there had been warning signs he'd not noticed. But there hadn't been; Peter had been perfectly normal the last few days, all there, no weird moments or emotional breakdowns.

"Or a devil or something." Peter waved his hands in front of his face, then let them fall to his side. "I know what I sound like."

"Okay." Jared looked at him thoughtfully. "Hey, did you take something? Did someone give you something?"

Peter was shaking his head again. "I'm not high."

Jared looked into his eyes, they were bright and clear. He didn't actually look high, just scared. Jared reached out, and this time Peter let him take hold of his arm, he squeezed gently.

"So tell me what happened."

"I don't know, I don't... he did a thing, with his eyes, and he was going to kill me, and-"

"Hey, hey, look at me okay." Jared ran his hands down Peter's arms, centred him, waited until Peter was focussed on him and had taken a breath. "It's alright. He's locked up. He can't do anything now."

Peter looked behind him, scared as though he thought the guy might come straight through the door. But he looked back at Jared and nodded, took another deep breath.

"He threatened to kill you? Is he armed?"

Peter shook his head. "I don't think so. But his eyes were... I think he's a shape shifter."

"Okay." Jared held his breath, this was bad in a way he couldn't get his head around. He hoped the death threat was real, at least that way it wasn't necessarily kidnapping and false imprisonment. "Did you hurt him?" 

Peter shook his head. "I trapped him."

"Do you know his name?"

"He called himself Edward."

"Hey, uh, Edward, you okay in there?" Jared called through the door.

"Don't," Peter said, moving them both further away from the room.

"Oh, I'm fine, don't worry about me," a voice replied. He sounded old and british, and horribly unthreatening.

"Um, you don't mind staying in there for a few more minutes while we sort this out, do you?" 

"Certainly, I'm quite used to this sort of thing."

Jared frowned at that, but let it go for now. "Okay." He lowered his voice. "Peter, he's safe in there, he can't get out, why don't we go and talk about this, properly." Somewhere he can't hear us, his face said. "Come on." 

Peter clearly didn't want to, but he let himself follow Jared down the stairs, to where Pindy and Carmen were waiting, listening. Jared kept a hand on Peter's arm, sat him carefully on a stool at the kitchen table, and then poured him some water. 

"Are we all going to prison?" Pindar asked. 

"Nobody's going to prison," Jared said. He made eye contact with Carmen to reassure her in particular. Kidnapping wasn't the best thing to get involved with in the last few months of your parole. She shrugged like it was fine. 

"I'm not crazy," Peter said, looking at the table in front of him.

"I know, we know. Nobody's saying that. But you locked a man in the bathroom, and claimed he was a shape shifting wizard. So we need to talk about that." 

Peter rested his elbows on the table and put his head in his hands. "It sounds so bad when you say it like that."

Pindar nodded and opened his mouth to say something but Jared glared at him and Carmen hit his arm. He shut up.

"Start at the beginning, just tell us where he came from."

"He was outside, and he knew my name. He said... I don't know, but I figured he was a client. I said I'd talk to him, see if we could help."

"Uh huh, and what did he want?"

"I don't know. It was confusing. He said I shouldn't be here, and he kept looking at things and tutting at them. He kept saying it was time." Peter put on a terrible english accent, "It is time now, Maruthisu."

"Maruthisu?"

Peter shrugged. "That's what he calls me." He sat up straighter. "He said.. he said I was going to die if I didn't do what he wanted. Then he did the thing with his eyes."

Everyone looked at him, questioning. 

"They glowed."

Everyone looked at him, worried.

"Purple."

Jared felt cold inside. He put his hand on Peter's shoulder and Peter didn't even seem to notice. Pindar and Carmen looked at Jared, deep concern in their eyes. He nodded at them, he knew it was bad. He swallowed a hard lump in his throat.

"Okay buddy." He squeezed Peter's shoulder. "So what do you think we should do?"

"I don't know."

"You get that we have to let him out, right?"

"No."

"You want to keep him in there forever?"

"We should call the police. Or the army."

"How the hell are we going to call the army? And you locked an old man in a bathroom, I'm not sure we want the police here."

"But he's a wizard."

Jared nodded slowly, feeling sick inside. "We're all here now, and there's only one of him, right? He won't try anything. We'll just show him out. It'll be over in five minutes and we can get pizza."

Peter was shaking very slightly under Jared's hand. He was truly scared, whatever this was it was real for him. Jared took a deep breath and let go of him. Better to get it over with and see what happened. 

"You stay down here. I'll let him out, won't let him anywhere near you."

Peter stood up. "You can't go on your own, he might mind wipe you."

"I'll go with him," Carmen said. "You and Pindy stay down here. We can handle it."

Peter looked a little more convinced by Carmen's ability to handle a shape shifting wizard than he was by Jared's. Jared made a note to take issue with that later, when everything was sorted out and Peter was better. 

They went back up the stairs, and Carmen unlocked the bathroom door. She left it closed and went to stand a few feet away down the corridor. Jared joined her, making sure she was just a little in front of him.

"Okay, you can come out now," she called.

Edward opened the door, he was only a little taller than Jared, looked maybe seventy or seventy-five, he had a terrible hairpiece and was leaning on a cane. He looked at the two of them standing down the corridor. 

"How is he, is he feeling any better now? He really was in such a state."

"He's fine," Jared said, not altogether convincingly. "It was all just a misunderstanding, you should go now."

"Oh no, I'll need to talk with him again. We have an awful lot to discuss."

Jared shook his head. "No, you're going to leave him alone. I don't know what you think you're doing, but you can't go around threatening to kill people, and scaring them, so if you don't leave right n-"

"Oh dear me, no. Is that what he thought? No no no, I am here to prevent his death, not bring it about."

"Oh." Jared didn't know what to do with that. He looked at Carmen. 

"Is that your thing?" she asked. "Telling people weird shit about how they're going to die and then conning them out of whatever you can? Because it's not going to work here. You need to leave. Now."

Edward's eyes grew brighter, and Jared was sure he was imagining it, caught up in Peter's fear. Either that or it was some carnival trick using hi-tech contact lenses. But then it changed, and he knew it was no trick, it was something deeper, more fundamental than that. It wasn't human. They were so bright they were glowing. Then they slowly swirled until they were a deep dark purple. 

Jared's body coursed with fear. He screamed for a second, and rushed backwards unthinkingly, slipping and hitting the wall. 

Carmen didn't scream, which Jared was impressed by. But she did step backwards, and she looked furious and terrified all at once.

"This is really none of your concern," Edward said, his voice so low Jared could feel his bones trembling. "I will speak with Maruthisu."

Jared fought to pull himself together, and even among the panic he still had time to register the relief pouring through him. Peter wasn't crazy. It was okay. Not totally okay because there was some sort of wizard demon in their house, but more okay than the alternative. 

Peter was there in a second, running up behind them. He put his hands on Jared's shoulders, and now Jared knew he was the one shaking.

"Are you okay? Don't look him in the eye," Peter said. 

But Jared couldn't drag his eyes away from the old man. Who looked perfectly normal again, human and old. Frail even.

"Uh, you saw that right?" Carmen asked, her voice shaking just a little where she couldn't control it. "His eyes."

"Purple," Jared said. 

"Yes, I do apologise, sometimes it's a little hard to control," Edward said.

Peter pulled Jared backwards as if just the man's voice might be dangerous. Jared smiled because he wasn't sure if Peter was trying to keep him out of danger or if he was just using him as a shield. He figured it was a little of both. And he always felt braver when Peter was relying on him to deal with something he couldn't.

He opened his mouth to say something brave. Then realised he didn't know how to start.

"What are you?" Carmen demanded.

"Well dear, that's really not something I'm supposed to go into, you understand. I think it would be best if I talked with Peter Bash alone."

"No," Jared said.

"Not going to happen," Carmen agreed.

Edward looked from one of them to the other and then up at Peter. 

"Your small friends really are very charming," he said. "Am I to understand from your earlier actions that you don't know who I am?"

Peter shook his head, eyes still firmly glued to the floor, hands gripping Jared's shoulders harder than ever.

"Ah. Perhaps I do have some explaining to do then. I think we should have a cup of tea and go somewhere more comfortable. Your mother really should have explained all of this."

"My mom?"

"Indeed. Colleen Bash I believe."

"What have you done to her?" Peter had his phone out of his pocket and was looking for his mom in his contacts. "If you've hurt her..."

"Nothing of the sort," Edward said, his tone offended and his eyes glowing again. Only faintly this time, a pale lavender.

"How do you know her?" Carmen asked. "If you've been going round threatening her with your fancy eye trick we-"

Jared put his hand on her shoulder before she picked a fight with something that Jared wasn't convinced was human, much less british.

Before it could go any further he heard Colleen pick up at the other end of the line. Peter quickly made sure she was okay, and she asked why he was calling. "I, uh," Peter said. "Just a second." He put his hand over the phone and looked to Jared for help.

"Go and talk to her. Somewhere he can't overhear. See if she knows who he is." What he is. "We won't let him leave til you get back." If they had a choice in what a magical demon did, that was. 

Peter nodded distractedly and left, keeping his eye on Edward to the last moment. Jared watched him, worried about how Colleen was mixed up in all this.

"You don't mind if we sit down, do you? I'm not as young as I was, and all this standing is rather hard on my knee."

Jared and Carmen looked at each other. It felt odd to agree to sit down with a glowing eyed demon as if it was business as usual. But at the same time it felt crazy to be standing here terrified of an old man with a cane and bad hair.

Jared shrugged. "I guess."

Neither of them turned their backs for even a second as Edward moved past them, but they followed him downstairs and pointed him to the lounge. 

"Pindy, you can come out now," Carmen called as they went to the kitchen.

"There was screaming." Pindar's voice came from under the kitchen counter. Jared leaned down to see him tucked in there, gripping a rolling pin. 

He gave him a hand and pulled him to his feet. "We have a rolling pin?"

"Apparently," Pindar said, looking around him. "Did he leave?"

"Nope, he's in the lounge."

"There's good news and bad news," Carmen said. 

"Bad news." 

Carmen ignored him. "The good news is that Peter's not crazy."

"Which means that you've just released a shape shifting glowing-eyed monster into our house, how is that good news?"

"Because he hasn't tried to kill anyone yet?" Jared tried. "We're going to have tea."

"We don't know that he can shape shift," Carmen added.

"Oh god." Pindar opened a kitchen drawer and started taking out pill bottles.

\- ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ -

They took a tray with cake and tea through to the lounge. Jared sat down, but looked up worriedly at Peter's room where he'd taken the phone.

"He'll be a few minutes," Edward said. "I imagine she has quite a bit of explaining to do. She really should have told him earlier."

"Told him what?"

"About the adoption."

Jared stared at him, then back at Peter's room. He felt sick, as though the world was spinning slightly too fast. That would go a hundred fold for Peter. It was massive, it was freak out for months massive. This was not going to be easy. 

"And the curse," Edward added, nonchalantly.

Carmen choked on her coffee. Jared stared dumbly at Edward, then back towards Peter's room, then back at Edward.

"The what?" they asked in unison after a moment.

"We're all going to die, aren't we?" Pindar said, sounding remarkably relaxed about it. Jared realised he'd bypassed his usual drugs and gone straight for the end zone heavy hitters. 

"Oh it's nothing to worry yourselves about, we'll get it all sorted out."

Edward refused to elaborate past that, so they sat silently for nearly twenty minutes before Peter reappeared. 

He sank into the couch next to Jared, he looked shell-shocked.

"I'm adopted," he said. 

Jared nodded. "Edward told us."

"Did he tell you I'm a prince of a mystical kingdom, placed here for my own protection?"

Jared stared at him open-mouthed.

"That's what she said."

"But that's..." It was crazy. Except Edward's eyes _had_ definitely glowed, so who knew what might be real now? Jared squeezed Peter's arm. He looked back at Edward. "Is that true?" 

"I wouldn't have put it in quite such dramatic terms, you're not in any danger Peter Bash, you do not require protection."

"You said I was going to die."

"You misunderstood. I am here to prevent that occurring. You were cursed as a baby, but it is only a small thing, easily mended."

"Cursed."

Jared put his arm round Peter's shoulders. "That's cool, right? Lots of cool people are cursed. Nothing to worry about."

"Who?"

"Sleeping Beauty," Carmen said, "And, um-"

"Angelus," Pindar helpfully supplied. "From Buffy The Vampire Slayer. He was cursed by gypsies."

"See? Lots of people, and it turns out alright."

Pindar mumbled something which Jared thought had to do with how Angelus's curse hadn't been exactly 'alright', but luckily Edward spoke straight over him.

"Perhaps I should explain some of this," he said calmly. "I'm sure it's all very strange but there's no reason to panic. Now, the first thing to say is that your mother, the queen, had never intended to send you away. You're her third child, and she loved you from the moment you were born. You were a wonderful baby, never cried, always smiling. Unfortunately the queen's uncle visited you and he was terribly angry about that business with the goblin king, so he-"

"Goblin king," Pindar said. "Yes, obviously."

Jared stared at Edward, confused by pretty much everything that was coming out of his mouth. Confused by how easily found himself simply nodding along to it. He wondered if it was hypnosis. He wondered if, if it was hypnosis, he'd be able to wonder if it was hypnosis. He kept hold of Peter, who was cold and still, right on the edge of not dealing with this at all. Jared squeezed him gently, trying to keep him together.

"Yes the king, all over now of course, but your uncle was really very upset. So he laid a small curse on you. There are a few other small side effects, but the main thrust of the thing is simply that your True Love would be human. An inconvenience certainly, but hardly anything to worry about. Of course when mixed with the family curse it becomes a little more urgent."

"Family curse," Peter said to the floor. "Right."

"In your line it is imperative that you find your True Love before you are forty or-" He drew his finger across his throat with a frown. "Instant death, I'm afraid. That's why we sent you here to the Human Realm, so you would have every chance to find her. It isn't usually a problem for our kind, but the clock is ticking in your case, so we thought you might need a little help."

Everyone sat quietly for a few moments. Trying to process.

"You said the, uh, the human realm?" Jared said, and Edward nodded. "So Peter's from...?"

"From the Other Side. It's not so commonly spoken of here, I understand. But our peoples have always had contact when necessary. We found Colleen Bash, through one of Maruthisu's third cousins. They met when he was here on a little holiday some years before, and he recommended her. She was most understanding about the whole thing, very open to possibilities."

"I'm sure," Jared said. 

Peter shook his head. "This is crazy."

Jared patted his shoulder understandingly. 

"So you're here to matchmake?" Carmen said. "You have some sort of magic voodoo that will find him a princess?"

"Not exactly, no magic that can help here I'm afraid. The whole kingdom would run a lot more smoothly if there was a simple potion to take I can tell you, but matters of love are more complicated than that."

"So what, he just has to kiss a million frogs for the next year, and hope one of them is a secret elf princess seeking her true love."

Jared and Peter turned to Carmen as one. "Elf?" 

She waved a hand. "Whatever you are, elf or fairy or something."

Edward's eyes glowed darkly. "We do not like either of those terms, please refrain from their use."

"Okay," Jared said, hurriedly. "No worries." He put his hand on Peter's thigh, soothing him as he pressed backwards into the couch in terror again. 

"Sorry," Carmen agreed. "Won't happen again."

Pindar was just smiling into the middle distance without a care. 

"But is she right?" Jared asked.

"Well I don't know why frogs would come into it. As a Prince of the Kingdom you are naturally destined for True Love, Peter Bash. You have clearly not recognised it, but it is hardly possible that your destiny has passed you by entirely. So it's likely someone you already know. 

"Is there anyone you can think of, someone special to you, with whom you feel a deep connection. Possibly someone you have crossed paths with several times, fate will have given you every opportunity to recognise your destiny."

They thought about it.

"Marie Benson?" Jared suggested. 

Peter wrinkled his nose, but Edward looked hopeful and gestured for Peter to explain. 

"We went to school together, and then I met her years later on holiday in Ibiza. And then she was on a jury in one of our cases a few months ago."

"And she's someone you feel close to? Do you find yourself drawn to her?"

"I don't know. We hooked up a couple of times, but it never worked out." 

"Ah, so you dated, did you by any chance kiss the lady?"

Peter nodded slowly, kissed and quite-a-bit-mored the lady. 

"And was it True Love?"

"I don't know."

Edward shook his head dismissively. "No, you should have felt at least something. Perhaps someone you work with then?" With no suggestions forthcoming Edward carried on, smiling broadly at Carmen. "Or maybe a close friend, someone you live with even, you may have mistaken romantic feelings for friendsh-"

"No," Carmen said firmly. "No, I don't think so. No offence, Peter."

"None taken." Peter looked at Edward with a sigh. "Look, it's not like I haven't been looking, I've dated a lot, I would have noticed if my True Love had come along. I don't have anyone like that."

"Of course you have someone like that," Pindar said, then he turned to Carmen. "I can't feel my knees."

Carmen ignored him, but looked thoughtfully at Peter. "He's not wrong."

"What, who?" Peter asked.

"Well, you and J-"

"No," Jared said, slightly louder than he intended. "No. Janie is not his fucking fairytale princess."

Carmen and Pindar both looked at him, and they were smiling in a way he didn't understand and didn't like one bit.

"We don't mean Janie," Pindar said, almost as a singsong.

Peter and Jared both looked puzzled at that.

"Come on," Carmen said, gesturing between the two of them. "Live together, work together, deep connection, devoted to each other, True Love that you've mistaken for friendship..." 

Their faces both changed swiftly from puzzled to shocked to denial. They moved six inches further away from each other on the couch. Jared frowned with a pout. Peter looked from Carmen to Pindar and back again. 

"We're not.."

"We're just.."

They both started but both stopped. 

"I think you make a lovely fairytale princess, Jared," Pindar said. 

"Oh!" Edward said, apparently only just realising what they were talking about. "Well, yes, uh, it's not unheard of of course for the princess to be a prince instead. I didn't realise you were homose-"

"I'm not," Peter said hurriedly.

Jared shook his head. "They think they're funny."

"You've got to admit it makes sense," Carmen said. "You met when you were what, ten? What's the longest you've gone without seeing each other since then?"

Jared and Peter half almost glanced at each other, before going back to avoiding eye contact. They frowned. 

"Two months," Peter eventually said, quietly. 

Jared knew exactly when he was talking about, and they'd been the worst two months of his life, but he wasn't going to say so because Carmen would only use it as evidence against him. 

Edward was looking at them thoughtfully. "That certainly sounds promising," he said. "You live here together? And work together as well?"

Jared and Peter both looked at different parts of the floor; they both nodded.

"And I heard you upstairs, Peter Bash you were comforted by Jared Franklin's arrival, he got through to you when the others could not. You both feel slightly more comfortable, stronger even, when the other is around do you not?"

Jared and Peter both shrugged, both inwardly agreeing that maybe they did, neither willing to think about it too much. 

"Yes, yes, this is very promising. Now tell me, have the two of you ever kissed?"

Peter and Jared shook their heads. 

Carmen and Pindar made identical expressions of disbelief.

"What?" Jared said. "We haven't."

"Seriously?" Carmen said.

"Not once?" Pindar asked. 

"When you were drunk?" 

"Or feeling lonely>" 

"Celebrating a win?"

"In jail?"

"We're all friends here, guys. We won't judge."

"No," they said as one.

"Well if you would," Edward said, apparently unaware of the awkwardness.

"What? No," Peter said. 

"If he is your True Love you have to kiss him eventually," Pindar said.

"He's not my..." 

"We're just friends," Jared said, the same way he'd been saying since they were fourteen and kids at school had started noticing.

"Your drugged companion is right, if this is your True Love there is no reason to keep searching, everything will be much simpler for us all. And it is not unusual to have been drawn to your Destiny early in life, too early to recognise it yourself. It certainly seems like that is the case here. You really ought to kiss him now and know for sure."

Jared stared at his hands. He felt Peter glance at him and then quickly away again. 

"Just do it," Carmen said. "What's the big deal?"

Jared shrugged. He'd kissed Andrew Clark in sophomore year as part of a bet. That hadn't felt like a big deal, but this was different. For a start he was incredibly sober right now. And also... it just was. 

"Okay," Peter said, "Fine."

Jared stared at him. "What?" 

"Why not?"

"Because..." He wanted to say because it felt like a test that he couldn't pass, but he couldn't explain it so he just said, "Yeah, okay." He'd get it over with and think about it later.

They turned to each other without actually looking at each other. Peter put his hand on Jared's shoulder and leaned in, and Jared lifted his mouth to meet him. Their lips brushed over each other. It was brief and soft, but Jared's lips were tingling as he pulled away and the world was a different shape and he was hyper aware of the blood in every inch of his body. 

There was no question Peter felt it too, they looked at each other with slightly furrowed eyebrows.

Peter stroked his fingers through Jared's hair, keeping him close. "Maybe, uh..." he said, and Jared put his hand on Peter's chest, nodded, yeah, they should maybe do that again. 

Peter kissed him. At first it was stupid, because it was _Peter_ , but at the same time it wasn't stupid because it was Peter and he liked Peter. Liked him a lot, he thought as Peter's tongue gently stroked over his lip, into his mouth. Liked him more than anything in the world, he thought probably. Peter's mouth opened for him and... Jared could hear Carmen and Pindar's sudden exclamations of surprise but he didn't care, his eyes were closed, his whole self caught up in the kiss. He vaguely heard the crash of cymbals and the rising surge of choral music accompanying them, but it didn't really register. Nothing registered until Peter pulled away from him in surprise.

"Wow," Peter whispered.

"Yeah." 

But Peter wasn't talking about the kiss. "No," he paused and smiled, "Well yeah. But dude, look." 

Jared looked at Peter who was still Peter even though he was apparently a magical elf prince or something, as well as Jared's destiny, as well as the best kisser in the known universe. But Peter wasn't looking at him, he was staring as golden glitter floated around them, glowing and swirling through the air. A butterfly landed on Jared's shoulder, just as Carmen gestured for them to look outside where there was a giant rainbow spread over the ocean. And small yellow and blue birds were fluttering on the balcony, singing. 

"Oh," Jared said stupidly.

"True Love," Edward said contentedly.

Yeah, that sounded about right, Jared thought dizzily. He could feel an actual pull in his chest towards Peter, familiar but stronger now. Peter was grinning back at him, then he leaned and kissed him again for a second or two. 

"Everybody else is seeing this, right?" Pindar asked. "There's, there's a..." 

He pointed at the floor where a vine of green leaves with light pink flowers was steadily growing from the floorboards, twining around the couch legs, and up to where Peter and Jared were sitting.

"We see it," Carmen said reassuringly.

Edward was standing up, reaching for his cane, and adjusting his hair. "Don't be alarmed, it's only a short term reaction to your union. The universe is simply expressing its satisfaction. It must have been waiting for this for a long time."

"You're leaving?" Jared and Peter stood up as Edward started towards the door. 

"Well my business is done, Jared Franklin. Curse averted."

"But Peter's a..." he pointed up and down at him. "He's, uh, a Prince. Do we have to do anything?"

"Oh, I'm sure his mother will be in touch about the wedding, but other than that no. Carry on as usual. And of course many congratulations to you both."

"Wedding," Jared said, tasting it more than anything else.

"That's okay, isn't it?" Peter asked.

He nodded. "Yeah." Then he smiled because it was _very_ okay, that meant Peter would stop trying to marry other people. "Yeah."

Peter grinned and kissed him again. When they next looked around Edward was gone, and Pindar was fending off a peacock with a broom. 

"Douglas!" Jared said, happily. 

"Any chance you two could lay off the physical stuff until we get the wildlife under control?" Carmen asked.

"Nope," Peter said. 

"Don't think so," Jared agreed, standing on tip toes to kiss him some more.

"Guys," Carmen said, sounding unamused, picking her way over a variety of small woodland creatures which were gathering around their feet. 

"Okay, okay," Peter said, and brushed some of the glitter out of Jared's hair. Jared felt his stomach dissolve into butterflies just because Peter had touched him. He took hold of Peter's hand so the feeling would last. 

They sat down while Carmen carefully extracted Pindar from his own private hell and away to his room.

"You couldn't have got this all out in the open back when you were sixteen or something?" She muttered as she passed. 

They ignored her and sat quietly for a minute or two. Jared breathed slowly.

"You okay?" Jared asked eventually; Peter was swaying very slightly. 

"I'm not human."

Jared didn't know what to say, he just squeezed Peter's hand.

"And cursed."

"I don't think you are cursed any more, I think this, us, thing, saves you from that."

"Oh."

Jared wanted to kiss him again, but he was worried that they might bring forth unicorns next, or dancing brooms or something.

But then Peter said, "I don't mind being cursed if it means I have you." 

And immediately Jared didn't care what the universe was going to do, he kissed Peter again. Kissed him long and soft, until Peter pulled him up into his lap so he would be closer and kissed him some more. Peter's arms were around him and he was smiling, and Jared could hear violins and he could hear Carmen cursing them and Pindar yelling something about fireworks but he didn't care because Peter was in love with him and it felt like every problem he'd ever had in his life had just unknotted itself.

\- ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ - ~ -

"How did we not know?" Jared asked a couple of hours later. He was lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling because he could never look at Peter again because the last time he'd looked at Peter Peter had had Jared's cock in his mouth and it had been awesome but now Jared was going to blush for the rest of his life and never make eye contact with his best friend ever again.

"I think we at least sort of knew," Peter said, lying next to him, getting his breath. "We knew we were awesome together."

"We're really, really awesome together." He didn't look but he knew Peter grinned happily at that, taking the compliment.

Then Peter's phone buzzed on the stand. He groaned and didn't pick it up. "It'll be my mom. I'll have to tell her."

"That we're awesome together?"

Peter let his hand stroke against Jared's side casually, a confirmation of how awesome they were together.

"That we're together together. All those years we spent convincing her we were straight," Peter said with a sigh and Jared laughed. "Don't laugh, you have to tell your mom too."

"Oh god."

They were quiet for a while, both trying to work out how those conversations were going to go. Both bad, but in such different ways.

"We could just email everyone we know and go to Hawaii for a couple weeks," Peter said eventually.

"Perfect, I knew there was a reason I love you." 

There was silence for a long horrible moment until he forced himself to look over at Peter, who was still gently glowing, a beautiful fading light all around him. He was smiling at Jared, much more beautiful than anyone - elf, fairy or whatever-the-hell-he-was - had any right to be.

"Say it again."

"No."

"Say it again."

"Dude, we made _rainbows_ appear, you are literally _glowing_ , we haven't spent more than two days apart in twenty years, and we had some sort of wizard elf priest tell us it was True Love. You don't need me to say it."

"I love you too," Peter said, all grown up and smooth about it, his voice low and full and meaningful. It made Jared's insides melt until he practically writhed with happiness. Peter grinned at him.

"Okay, so we can say it sometimes," Jared said. Peter nodded approval. 

"You really don't mind about this?" Peter waved his hand, and it left a trail in the air like a sparkler. 

"Did anyone ever make you glow before?"

"Nope."

"Then I absolutely definitely don't mind. Come here." 

Peter didn't need a lot of encouragement, he moved immediately, his arms coming round Jared, pulling him close. The light wound around Jared, spreading out from everywhere Peter touched him until it linked them together, cocooned them as one. They kissed lazily, both happily exhausted.

"We are going to rock this happily ever after thing," Peter whispered.

Jared nodded - he would have said something but a dozen heart-shaped red bubbles suddenly hovered over the bed, floating gently upwards, bobbing and weaving around, and that seemed to say it all really.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the "au: fairy tale" square of my trope bingo card.


End file.
